Retailers see biggest holiday sales gain since '07

AndriaCheng

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- With holiday season around the corner, retailers forecast their holiday season sales to rise 3.7%, the fastest pace since 2007, according to a BDO survey of 100 retail chief marketing officers. With introductions of tablet devices from Apple Inc.
AAPL, +1.72%
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT, +0.00%
and Google Inc.
GOOG, +0.42%
retail marketing chiefs expect consumer electronics to be the top selling and most discounted product category this year. A majority of marketing chiefs also expect gift card sales to increase this year. While retailers are being cautious keeping their inventory level the same to avoid deep discounts, they expect to stock slightly more variety on the shelves this year, the survey showed, adding retailers still see unemployment as the biggest risk to holiday sales.

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